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Amended and Adopted September 9, 2003 HUMAN SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION Members Present: Bill Goodwin Tom Lawrey Ann Reiss Guests: Diana Marmelstein, Applicant for Commission Membership Bill Goodwin called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm and asked that Commission members and City staff introduce themselves. He then asked the two Commission applicants to introduce themselves. Diana Marmelstein explained that she was originally from Baltimore and had relocated to Rockville about three years ago. She has worked for Manpower Professionals for the last seven years and currently manages branch operations. Her job is to place temporary employees in information technology, engineering, scientific and financial positions. Tim Stranges said that he provides training in cultural competence in health care and workforce diversity for the federal government. He is also a member of the Rockville Chamber of Commerce and is Vice President of their Partnership Committee. This committee partners with the City, non-profits and Montgomery County to help with community events such as the Spirit of Rockville and Hometown Holidays. He has also been doing mediation for the City for the past two years. He is most interested in the issue of health care and the uninsured and is looking for additional ways to serve the city. Re: Presentation on Activities of Rockville Senior Commission Bill introduced Ciriaco Gonzales, Chairperson of the Senior Citizens’ Commission. Mr. Gonzales said that he has lived in Rockville since 1972. He retired about three years ago and has been on the Senior Citizens’ Commission for about a year. He also teaches a beginning ESOL class at the Senior Center. In his role of Chairperson he is trying to infuse a little more of a political agenda with respect to issues for seniors. Members are trying to influence legislation at the state level and also at the federal level where one Senior Citizen Commission member has contacts with a congressman. Current concerns of the Senior Citizen Commission include:
Bill asked how the Senior Citizen Commission communicates with the Mayor and Council. Mr. Gonzales said that while members of his commission are in agreement that this would be a good idea, they are still considering how it should be done. He has considered summarizing the issues they have worked on in a report, delivered in both a written and an oral format. He sees the need to put any communication like this on cable to reach a larger audience. Every Monday, from 1 – 2 PM, he sits in the Senior Center Library so that anyone can drop by and discuss their concerns. David L’Heureux suggested that he use short bullets at the Open Forum as the public watches that event on the Rockville Cable Channel. Mr. Gonzales liked David’s idea, as he prefers short oral presentations to the Mayor and Council. Recently he sent an email to the editor of the Gazette to see if she would be interested in doing an article on seniors in Rockville. Bill thanked Mr. Gonzales for his presentation and commented that both commissions have many interests in common. He complimented Mr. Gonzales on his outreach to the wider community and offered to stay in touch with Mr. Gonzales himself to consider ways they can benefit from shared concerns and resources. Re: Follow-up Discussion on Volunteerism Bill explained to the guests that the Commission was looking to find ways to make it easier for individuals and businesses to volunteer in Rockville. In addition, he said, the Commission is interested in further defining the role of the City with respect to volunteerism and in leveraging what the County does. Ann Reiss asked Mary Lou Jacobs whether there were any major concerns with respect to volunteerism in the city. Mary Lou said that the Mayor and Council first raised the issue of volunteerism at the Commission’s most recent worksession. That was before they received a report from the City Manager documenting 100,000 hours of volunteer time spent at city events. Mary Lou had also learned from Guerdon Stuckey that as part of the budget process, the Mayor and Council were looking at supplemental requests and had a request on their list to create a new position for a volunteer coordinator. Guerdon Stuckey said that after receiving the report from the City Manager, the Mayor and Council no longer felt the new position was urgent. Mary Lou further explained that the Mayor and Council did not want to add staff positions at a time when they were considering the need to create a budget contingency. Mary Lou said that her focus would be to use volunteering as a mechanism to assist new residents in establishing a connection with the city. Even though the city has a lot of volunteer hours already, Mary Lou thinks it would be worthwhile to develop some new programs to reach out to new residents. David L’Heureux agreed, saying we need to reach out to younger volunteers. He thinks there should be a sign in the City Hall lobby that reads “volunteer office” or “volunteer coordinator”. This would help generate interest among residents, especially those who are younger and/or new in the area. Tom Lawrey said that timing is poor for establishing a new position. Possibly someone could be found to act as a coordinator on a volunteer basis. Agnes Saenz asked what current volunteer recruitment methods are used by the City. Mary Lou responded that efforts are varied. Rockville Reports is used; different public service announcements are used along with information placed on the City web page. The Recreation and Parks Department now has a way on the City web page for people to sign up to volunteer for recreation and special events. The City is registered with the Volunteer Center and has a few positions listed with them. Aside from the recreation program, the greatest ongoing need for volunteers is at the Nature Center. David asked if all volunteers in all areas in the City apply in writing. Mary Lou said that people interested in volunteering for boards and commissions definitely have to apply in writing. The Recreation and Parks Department is using a brief application on the web page. Otherwise it depends on the type of activity involved. Bill commented that from what people were saying it didn’t seem as though a volunteer coordinator in the City would be a great help to the human service providers in Rockville. He asked if having a volunteer coordinator in the City would add anything that wasn’t already being provided by the county Volunteer Office. David said that he thought having a volunteer coordinator would make a difference to provider agencies. Mary Lou said that she receives many telephone calls from people interested in volunteering. Many are not aware of the Volunteer Center and, if they are not interested in a volunteer position in the city, she refers them to the Volunteer Center. The City does have a directory of volunteer opportunities, but she doesn’t think there is a very strong link between the listing and actually linking people with the caregiver agency. It’s hard to recruit volunteers for someone else’s program unless the recruiter is very familiar with the program. Ann said that having a volunteer coordinator in the city recruiting for caregiver agencies seemed to her to be a duplication of services. The City’s volunteer process should really concentrate on what the City needs. Bill asked to shift the discussion to the demand side: how might we facilitate creation of good volunteer opportunities. Ann responded that she thought it important that volunteer positions should be based on real need within the nonprofit organization and not just invented for the volunteer. David said that rather than breaking volunteerism into segments, he thought the whole area needed to be studied. Tom said that it seemed to him that volunteerism in the city was actually doing quite well. Mary Lou and her department and Recreation and Parks and others in the City were doing a good job. He also feels that most of the Caregiver agencies don’t have a need for additional volunteers. Ann added that the reality is that volunteers create work for the staff. In many cases staff at these agencies are overloaded and can’t handle additional volunteers. Bill said that in listening to the discussion, he didn’t hear a recommendation emerging and, so, thought that the topic of volunteerism was one that the Commission should continue to monitor. Ann said that she would like to suggest that if Mary Lou finds a new need with respect to volunteerism, that she bring it to the attention of the Human Services Advisory Commission. Re: Approve Minutes for June 10, 2003 Meeting The minutes for the June 10, 2003 meeting were adopted with three changes. Wording was changed to reflect the fact that Bill Meeker had moved to adjourn the meeting. Additionally, on page four, two phrases were added in the first paragraph. The phrase “and the services to meet needs” was placed after “explore the City’s role” and the phrase “at Commission meetings” was added after the words “floor activity” at the end of the paragraph. Deborah Hopson moved that the amended minutes be approved. Tom seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Re: Review Draft Letter to Mayor/Council on Workplan Ann suggested that each task on the Commission’s Analysis of Tasks Emerging from the April 7, 2003 Worksession be reprinted in the letter to the Mayor and Council to avoid the reader having to constantly check the earlier document. Everyone thought this a good idea. It was further agreed that Task 5a would be changed to “This task would be completed on an ongoing basis and as developments warrant.” Task 6b was changed by inserting a period after “monthly meetings” and adding the sentence, “During our July meeting we began working on this task.” Bill also suggested that the word “additional” be added before “progress” in the third paragraph to reflect the fact that a lot of progress has already been made by the Commission in accomplishing the goals that emerged from the worksession. Tom suggested using the pronoun “we” in place of “I” wherever possible as the letter was being written on behalf of the entire Commission. Re: Review Draft Annual Summary of Activities and Accomplishments Commission members thanked Mary Lou Jacobs for drafting this report. Bill explained that it would be included as an attachment to the letter to the Mayor and Council on the workplan. David moved that the Commission approve both the letter to the Mayor and Council and the Report on Activities and Accomplishments for 2002-2003 as previously discussed. Ann seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Re: Confirm Membership and Conveners for Committees Bill said there were two areas that had emerged from the Commission’s worksession with the Mayor and Council: the needs of recent immigrants and the needs of underserved patients. There had been good response to his request that Commission members identify their interest and availability in serving on a committee in one of those two areas. He said that he had not yet heard from David or Darrell Butler. David said that he was interested in working on the idea of a health clinic and would have time for this task between Commission meetings. He also volunteered to work on the topic of the needs of persons with disabilities. Bill suggested that if David had suggestions as to how Commissioners could educate themselves in this area, short of forming a committee, to pass them on to him. Bill said there were approximately two months before the next Commission meeting and he hoped that the two committees would be able to meet before then and start feeding him ideas on speakers for monthly meetings. Mary Lou said that the City was funding three programs that worked in the area of needs of new immigrants. These are: Community Ministries of Rockville through their Latino Outreach Program, Chinese Culture and Community Service Center, and the Korean Community Service Center. She thought that possibly a representative from each of these programs could serve as a resource to the committee considering that issue. Those representatives would not be full committee members but would attend the meetings. In the area of health the City provides grants to the Primary Care Coalition and Mobile Med and the two directors of those programs are two of the most knowledgeable people in the County on that issue. She said also that the article mailed to Commission members on the clinic run by the Spanish Catholic Center might serve as a starting point to the committee considering the needs of underserved patients. Further, Mary Lou said, the City is asking the Caregivers to become more of a partner with the City on addressing the needs of Rockville residents and this would be one way they could do that. Agnes said that her agency, Community Ministries of Rockville, was in the process of developing a new program in the area of health and she would be pleased to share with the Commission any information they gather. Bill said he would like input as to how to proceed to get these two committees launched between now and the next Commission meeting in September. Tom suggested that the two committees each plan initial meetings. Bill asked that each committee look at the task from the initial matrix and choose a leader. Also each committee should consider how they would record their work and identify any other resources they might need or people to involve. Re: Adjourn to Executive Session David moved that the Commission adjourn to executive session at 32 Courthouse Square pursuant to Section 10-508(a) (l) (ii) of the State Government Article, Annotated Code of Maryland for the purpose of discussing the existing personnel vacancy on the Human Services Advisory Commission. Tom seconded the motion and all present voted in favor. The vote was recorded and signed by Bill Goodwin as the presiding officer. Commission members Bill Goodwin, Tom Lawrey, David L’Heureux, Deborah Parham Hopson, Ann Reiss, Agnes Saenz, and City staff members Mary Lou Jacobs and Guerdon Stuckey were present for the discussion. Ann then moved to adjourn the executive session; David seconded the motion and all present voted in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 PM. The next regular meeting of the Human Services Advisory Commission will be held Tuesday, September 9, 2003, from 7:30 - 9:30 PM, at 32 Courthouse Square. |
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